Question on using "years before" and "years earlier"?

When writing in the past tense, should you use "years before" or "years earlier"? Or does it matter? Two examples of the types of sentences I mean follow:
1. This information enraged Alegni, since he now knew that Dahlia was actually a young elf who he had raped and impregnated years earlier/before, and who had thrown their child from a cliff soon after it was born.

2.Jarlaxle and Athrogate still resided in Luskan at that time, and had continued to seek a way to avenge themselves for the events that occurred in Gauntlgrym eleven years before/earlier.